I went to see the Mettawee Theatre Company’s production of “The Woman Who Fell From The Sky” which is an Iroquois Creation story. I’ve been wanting to see the Mettawee puppets for years. They put on free productions ( and ask for well deserved donations) in the area every summer and now that I’ve seen what they do I will be going back next year.
Sometimes the puppets are people in costume, this production also had people working puppets about 24″ tall. The puppeteers were visible and held the wooden puppets bending their limbs using body language as well as using their own voices for the dialogue and narration. It seems like the puppeteers should be distracting, but they weren’t. They were both invisible and very present at the same time. At other times the puppeteers would put a simple mask over their face to become the sun or rain. There were 4 puppeteers and one musician and it was magical.
This production was outside on the grounds of Georgi Museum in Shushan NY and they do performances from Washington County to NYC.
It sounds magical!